More Wedding Photos

Love In The Sand

Jesse really wanted a honeymoon on the beach, so after 5 days in the jungle Jesse arranged for 5 days on the beach to meet both of our dreams. We booked the whole honeymoon with the same travel agent and I want to say that as wonderful as the Tabacon Resort was, the Playa Conchal, where we spent the second half of our trip, was terrible. The resort was old and rundown, the pool area and restaurants were in need of updating and cleaning, and the service was mediocre. All of this, I could've ignored but what really bothered me were the stray cats that were everywhere. Dirty cats with oozing sores, cats with litters of skinny kittens, smelly cats begging for food. As an animal lover, I found it hard to ignore the cats and could not enjoy the resort grounds.

That being said, once we realized how much we did not enjoy the resort, we chose to spend most of our time just outside the doors of the resort, at the lovely beach. Playa Conchal's website features photo-shopped pictures of their resort, but the pictures of the beach are dead on. All beaches in Costa Rica are public beaches and we were surprised that most of the time we were the only ones on the beach.



Of course I wanted one of these popular shots.

And, of course we got sunburned despite loads of sun block.

Jungle Love Part II

The Tabacon offers a grand spa with natural hot springs stemming from the nearby Arenal volcano and rain water. Sitting under the falls and letting the hot water run off your neck and shoulders was heavenly.

Because we were in Costa Rica during the "off" season, the hotel, the restaurants, and the spas were nearly empty. We were able to enjoy the spas without being crowded or pestered. Also, we had first rate choices for massage times and restaurant reservations.

The weather was beautiful, the people were wonderful, and we truly enjoyed a nice balance of activity and leisure time.

Honeymoon Love In The Jungle

During the wedding planning, Jesse and I had some different ideas about what a honeymoon should be. He really wanted to spend time lying on the beach, I wanted a more adventurous time. Of course, there were some tense moments for us during the planning and so to ease our disagreements, we agreed that Jesse would plan a honeymoon we would both enjoy and I would not ask him about it at all. When I found out Jesse had planned a honeymoon in Costa Rica, I knew he had hit the nail on the head!

Part I: My Honeymoon


The view from our room at The Tabacon Resort: Arenal Volcano

We did not get a honeymoon suite and we did not regret it, we felt our room was beautiful, clean, and comfortable, and had everything we needed.

Same view as above, once the mist had cleared.

The Get Away

The day after the wedding was a whirlwind of activity, which I don't have any pictures of. There was a brunch, cleaning, packing, and gift opening. That afternoon Jesse and I headed to Bar Harbor for the night. I still didn't know where we were heading for our honeymoon, but Jesse told me we weren't leaving until Tuesday morning and so a night in Bar Harbor was in order.

The number one thing Jesse wanted to do in Bar Harbor was eat lobster.

My new husband had his bib on as soon as the lobster was ordered.

It was a messy, messy job to bring that lobster down.

I'm not a fan of lobster, so I stuck with maine shrimp cocktail.

On Monday afternoon, we took the long route home and enjoyed some antique barns on the way home. It was a nice day to enjoy the new foliage and our new situation as husband and wife. And, on the way home Jesse let me in on a secret... we were heading to Costa Rica!

Evening Entertainment

Night Lights

These lanterns were a dream of my mum's and almost didn't happen. I was running low on time and I hadn't done a trial but they were the one decorative piece my mum loved and really wanted to see at the wedding. I had initially bought the red bags for the favors but when the labels arrived I didn't like the look of the red with the gold and so I decided to pick up the regular lunch sacks for the favors which I ended up loving.
The lanterns in Martha Stewart where made of white bags and I think she had stenciled them which I didn't have time to do, but I headed to Maine with the red bags and ribbon I had picked up at Building 19 and thought that I'd give it a try and that if it didn't work out I wouldn't be out too much money or time. My parents had the christmas lights in their attic and I think it all came together really well. The one regret I have about the lanterns is that I did them on Friday afternoon at the site because I was worried about how well they would hold up to travel. My brother and I worked for about two hours but we ran out of time and we were only able to get three strings done even thought I had enough supplies to do six. Oh well. What we did get up looked great and I got a lot of complements on them.